FREDERICKTOWN — Some strategies in baseball are timeless.
Yogi Berra, “When you come to the fork in the road, take it.” Wee Willie Keeler, who in 1898, while playing right field for the Baltimore Orioles, said, “Hit ‘em where they ain’t.”
That is just what Northmor did in downing Fredericktown 11-6 Thursday night in a Knox Morrow Athletic Conference slugfest.
“They are a team that puts the ball in play,” Freddies’ coach Ryan Hathaway said. “That’s just what they do. The big thing for us was allowing the extra base runners and not making enough plays.”
After losing to the Golden Knights 2-1 on Wednesday on the road, Hathaway was not surprised at what he saw from the team in the visitors’ dugout.
“They were just kind of popping the ball over our heads, that is what good contact teams do. ”
Hathaway knows that there are some things that are out of the control of even very good defensive teams.
“They did a good job of making contact tonight, so you know, there are some of those things that you really cannot do much about,” he said. “We are going to keep fighting until the last pitch.”
Northmor drew first blood, plating two runs in the top of the third inning. The Freddies answered in the bottom of the stanza, utilizing an error, a Jayce Beeman hit by a pitch, and Zane Luckmeier drawing a walk to knot the game. With the bases still juiced, Reece Hannan smoked a single to center field, giving the Freddies a 4-2 advantage.
One of the defensive plays of the game ended the top of the fourth inning, when Freddie catcher, Vince Lavin backhanded what appeared to be a wild pitch, spun and threw a bullet to first base, catching a Northmor runner to end the inning.
A combination of walks and clean hitting caused the wheels to come off for the home team in the sixth inning when the Knights took an 8-4 lead.
Fredericktown was able to draw within 8-6, when the visitors notched an additional three runs to put the game away.
The Freddies’ had one last gasp, but with bases loaded in the bottom of the final stanza, were unable to collect the needed hits.
“The biggest thing for us is, trying to compete on every pitch, and you don’t want to get yourself into a hole like that,” the Fredericktown coach said.
